Linksys branding not dead after all

Well, it looks like Cisco CEO John Chambers spoke a little too soon last Friday when he said that the Linksys brand was going the way of the dodo -- Cisco is now saying that it will continue selling Linksys-branded products "in the near term," and that changes would only come "if and when these changes add value to our customers' decision making processes." In other words, Linksys ain't dead yet, but the axe is still mighty close.

[bdkennedy1 @ Jul 31st 2007 12:17AM]

Cisco really needs to redesign their monsterous routing equipment. I was looking at Wireless N routers the other day at Fry's and the Linksys ones were gigantic!

[localcelebrity @ Jul 31st 2007 12:28AM]

good. kill it! the linksys brand has never really stood for good quality or customer support. They still tell customers using a Mac with their router is unsupported

[Carbinefreak @ Jul 31st 2007 12:33AM]

MY HEROS!

[Don @ Jul 31st 2007 12:37AM]

I think this may have been the dumbest thing I have heard lately. You Mac sends/receives TCP/IP, right? If it follows protocol properly then it will be supported. You don't have to have drivers for switches/gateways. They only bundle those installs for fools to lessen the need for support. I would have to guess that's why you bought a Mac though, and not a PC.

[Yem @ Jul 31st 2007 1:01AM]

How does branding it Cisco instead of Linksys change the quality?
It's not like Cisco bought a company with a known bad name. Throwing out Linksys sounds like a dumb move - discarding the brand value of Linksys and diluting the caché of Cisco.

[Matt @ Jul 31st 2007 2:32AM]

they mean that if you have a mac and use linksys and ring customer support they wont help you. Cause they don't support macs. They are referring to customer support.

[Rynth @ Jul 31st 2007 4:09AM]

I'm glad it doesn't support your Mac, it serves you right for buying one.

[mattclarkie @ Jul 31st 2007 5:54AM]

I know I'll get voted down, but I actually agree with Rynth. Serves you right for buying a Mac. I went into a shop the otherday which had an i-mac on display. The thing had frozen on the login screen and a little umbrella thing just kept rotating round I stood there for 5 minutes waiting to see if anything would happen, and it just kept rotating.

[aaronlh @ Jul 31st 2007 8:28AM]

Do you honestly proclaim that anecdotal frozen Mac story and at the same time believe it doesn't happen to PCs running Windows?

GTFO trolls.

[petey @ Jul 31st 2007 1:03AM]

Is Linksys really that valuable a name? I have always regarded the name with suspicion-- it seemingly came out of nowhere, and the brand just looks and sounds cheap to me. It is only after learning it is owned by Cisco that I have any confidence in it.

[Yem @ Jul 31st 2007 1:08AM]

Yeah, but Cisco bought the company. They didn't start it. Branding consumer gear with a an elite name like Cisco is more likely to harm the Cisco name than to help sell Linksys stuff. It's consumer gear in corporate clothing, not the other way around.

[BobbyW @ Jul 31st 2007 6:46AM]

Linksys proves the bad taste of the public. It was made popular just like AOL. There were better products than AOL, but people ran to it because it felt safe.
I don't buy Linksys because I've always liked Netgear metal boxes and the routers are always cheap. But I have to admit the hackability of Linksys is enticing.

[Todd @ Jul 31st 2007 9:15PM]

I didn't even know Linksys was Cisco. The Linksys router I had before my current Netgear was such a piece of crap. Kind of lowers my image of Cisco now.

[Tom @ Jul 31st 2007 1:30AM]

who's worse?

dlink
netgear
linksys

[michas_pi @ Jul 31st 2007 1:32AM]

Belkin

[AlexP @ Jul 31st 2007 1:36AM]

Our DLinks were fine until our 108MBPS wireless router died (3 year life), the wired one is still doing a great job.

Linksys is giving me some issues and I haven't tried any other brand, I'm probably switching back to DLINK for draft N.

[mattclarkie @ Jul 31st 2007 6:00AM]

RUBBISH

Belkin- Had 3 all broke

Inventel-Had 5 all exploded internally

GREAT

Netgear-Had 2 work flawlessly

BT-Had 1 works nearly flawlessly- 200+ days without a reboot and it only needs one when they do a firmware update.

[WhyNotV2 @ Jul 31st 2007 11:13AM]

Why all the hating on Linksys? I've always had a positive experience with them and the one time I had to call customer support (because I don't know how to read) was taken care of promptly. I started using Linksys products about 6 or 7 years ago after I finally got tired of replacing Motorola Surfboard modems every 6 months. I replaced my first Linksys modem 2 years ago. So a 5 year lifespan is pretty good in my mind. During that same 7 years, 2 routers. The only reason I replaced the first was to go wireless a couple years ago as well.

Most people I've spoken to think Netgear and D-Link are absolute junk (and would rather go back to dial-up versus using Belkin modems). Everyone has their own preferences and reasons for it...PC vs. Mac...Intel vs. AMD...Nike vs. Reebok...Domestic cars vs. Imports. Stick with what you like and know and it's all good.